Phantom Blade Zero First Impressions — Full Breakdown & Transcript

[00:08] This time bringing you my first impressions for Phantom Blade Zero, which is an action game that released uh just yesterday or technically the night before that from the time of this video. And it's a game I've been interested in

[00:20] announced. though it went through an interesting road where initially it was and then they backed off from that which is why I'm covering it now. But in either event, I did not receive a review key for this one. So I did pay for it

[00:34] when it launched and I got off to a bit of a slow start there. But I definitely because I thought it was especially interesting from the previews. So a few things right away. I would say my biggest first impression is that combat

[00:48] is a very fluid experience. And it's also very fast and flashy. And by flashy, I mean there's a lot of like really over-the-top like powered up moves. Even though on your end, you're doing relatively minimal work uh

[01:01] input-wise. Which brings me to my second point. I've already seen a few people trying to label this game as a Soulslike. It isn't one. Definitely more of just a base action title. And before we start getting into specifics, um I

[01:14] did want to mention a couple of other things as well. So, this game starts off uh relatively early with a big chase. Now, I've mentioned this like once or twice in the past, but any game that starts off with a big chase is usually

[01:27] going to have some form of like QTE or a little interactable in order to get you to play along with that chase. And I have just like this innate compulsion to see if that actually matters, like will failing kill you, etc. And like nine out

[01:40] of 10, the answer is no. So I was not surprised when that this is not something you can actually die doing, especially considering that this is a bit of the tutorial. I think a game taking it easy on you for a tutorial is

[01:53] appropriate if anything. However, I wanted to mention this to people something probably unintentionally hilarious, which is that shortly after actually dumps you into the game proper and there's like actual consequences for

[02:08] what you do. That is to say, if you die, you have to head back to a checkpoint and run back, etc. They very, very early on introduce a boss that you are scratch. And the game straight up tells you, "Hey, you shouldn't be fighting

[02:21] this enemy. Maybe come back later." And I just thought that juxtaposition was really, really funny of them giving you like a tutorial that you can't possibly fail only to turn around and then drop a boss that almost no one's going to beat

[02:33] right away cuz you're clearly supposed to come back. Intentional or not, I got a pretty big laugh out of that. Now, let's talk about a few other things. So, uh, how is this game running as a new release? That is, of course, of note.

[02:45] However, um, for me, it's been good so far. The main thing I want to mention is like the crazy long time it took to load the shaders for this one. So, this game is using Unreal Engine 5 as its engine. And while shader compilations are

[02:57] certainly par for the course anymore, uh I just wanted to note that this game took a really really long time to do so. Without exaggerating, probably 15 20 minutes, like I fully left, got up and did some other stuff, came back, and it

[03:10] was still wrapping up. And I'm curious if anybody else experienced that same probably just because there were a lot of them, as this game visually is very striking to look at, and I think that

[03:22] plays into some of the spectacle they were clearly trying to ham up in relation to like individual fights, which is a nice touch if anything else. However, when you actually go to start up the game, you will be able to pick

[03:34] options. There are three right away, basically easy, normal, or hard. And after you beat the game for the first time. That gives you a set number of deaths before you get a full-on game over. I haven't explored these too much

[03:48] just yet. I'm going to be, of course, looking at what they actually change when it comes time for the full review, whether or not changing them matters, etc. Which I bring up because another thing I noticed is that for bosses with

[04:00] like multiple phases, uh, each phase is effectively a checkpoint. like if you die on the second instance of a boss, like after a cut scene and it takes on a second form, etc. If you go back to that fight after a death, it just stays that

[04:13] grind your way through the first one every single time. And I think that's definitely isn't a Soulslike. But let's talk a little bit about the story. So, the story is mostly a vehicle for the action combat, and to that end, I'm not

[04:29] expecting too much here, but it has its interesting moments. We play as a interesting moments. We play as a character known as Soul. Soul here takes a stab to the old heart as you are fighting off your childhood rival who is

[04:41] framing you for the murder of your master. You are uh saved from death, if you will, by an entity that offers you a choice. And your character seems to pick by default the choice of being kept alive by a venomous heart that will kill

[04:55] alive by a venomous heart that will kill you in 66 days. And thus, we have 66 days to uh complete our objective and hopefully get a new heart that will prevent us from dying as a consequence of completing our mission, but also

[05:07] conspiracies. What is going on with these faceless enemies that have been wandering around, all these people in masks, etc., etc. Pretty basic setup, game actually takes the narrative anywhere interesting or if they keep it

[05:22] relatively tame in compliance with the genre almost. Jerry's still out on that one, though. Now, progressionwise, it seems to be a pretty basic experience. As we kill enemies, we will gain a currency that we'll use to level up our

[05:35] abilities, but we don't have like stats or anything we put these into, but will take some of those experience items, yes, but also other items we pick up that will then increase our uh overarching stats, like our health, etc.

[05:49] So, mostly more of a skill tree system. But really, another big part of all of your weapons. It is my understanding, according to the Steam weapons for people to use, at least. Each one of those can then be upgraded a

[06:03] whole bunch and has its own attack patterns, etc. So, that's another aspect of this that will be interesting to see if they nail as that is a lot of lot of them are grouped into types like they typically are, I'm still curious to

[06:17] see how much of that is actually useful, let alone necessary. Either way, we will hopefully be using those abilities and everything that we pick up in order to traverse the landscape we find ourselves in. And in the case of this game, it

[06:30] seems to be several different hubs that are linked together via loading screens. As we move through these individual areas, we will find these bells that ring for us, and these act as your rest points that you can stop and get your

[06:42] seem to respawn any enemies. I imagine that will change in some capacity as the was of note. You can use these checkpoints to fast travel immediately. Uh once you meet the blacksmith and the little outpost in the first area, you'll

[06:57] straight from these checkpoints and don't have to teleport around so much. all sorts of interactables as well as quests to take on. Another thing I you start grabbing some of the weapons, they introduced some mechanics around

[07:12] travel with those as well, like breaking through chains that bar off doors or using a bow to shoot down loot, etc. So, some nice little touches. Uh, mostly as curious to see what it does biomewise and how it keeps all of that

[07:26] interesting. But then, of course, there's the big portion of combat. As certainly seen, combat is very fast-paced and flashy. However, the actual execution doesn't seem terribly complicated. There are things like

[07:40] based on the individual weapon you have equipped on top of the base combos themselves. But then there's your reaction to what the enemy is doing. You can just block them more generally, which costs your own guard as well as

[07:53] preventing their attacks. You can choose to parry if you're good at the timing there. Sometimes the enemy will flash blue or red and you need to perfectly parry the blue attacks or dodge out of the way completely of red. and doing so

[08:06] advantageous position, which is to say destroy them, ideally breaking their guard. Once their guard is broken, they go into a bit of a recovery state, and thus this is a good time to spam damage,

[08:19] provided you can get in there to actually do it. Beyond that, it's mostly just the weapons and their effects. actually like the basics at least here in the early game are pretty simple and straightforward even if they are I would

[08:31] say augmented by how good everything looks on top of really smooth gameplay experiences overall still though uh we have our base weapons or our primaries and then you can also pick up phantom edges. So, these are basically heavy

[08:45] charges you can use, and they produce some different effects, like giving you a ranged attack via the bow or using the axe to chop things down and access them, which is nice. But when it comes to a review specifically, I'll be checking to

[08:58] see how much depth I can find in this combat system because it's fun here in the beginning. But a, will that last? And b, are the mechanics good enough to carry it across the finish line in terms of the overall time investment? Which is

[09:11] and see cuz I don't have the answer for that question just yet, of course. But I going to leave this video for the time being. Um, I'm enjoying the early hours, but I've still got a lot to go and I want to see how these things stack up

[09:26] over the course of the experience. And thus, here we are. But I will say I don't know exactly when I will have this review done. I do have some time to sit with it for the next several days. So, if it's a relatively shorter action

[09:38] title, I may well be able to knock it out relatively quickly, but it'll be lands. But, as for today, that's pretty much going to do it. Hope you enjoyed the video. If you did, by all means like, comment, subscribe, all that

[09:50] YouTube jazz. But regardless of any of that, truly just thank you so much for watching. I really do appreciate it. May you wander in wisdom and have an amazing you wander in wisdom and have an amazing day.